


That's the Spirit

by thisbluespirit



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: 500 prompts, Community: dw_allsorts, Gen, Possibly flippant references to historical events, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 14:06:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13614933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisbluespirit/pseuds/thisbluespirit
Summary: It was no time to be out on a boat in the North Sea, especially not considering the time of the century, but that was the trouble with travelling with the Doctor...





	That's the Spirit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Llywela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llywela/gifts).



> Written for Llywela in the [500 Prompts Meme](http://lost-spook.dreamwidth.org/291842.html): 025 – emergency evacuation – Four, Sarah & Harry (DW). Also for Doctor Who Allsorts prompt "night descending".

It was a fine evening in late spring, but nevertheless no time to be out on a small boat on the North Sea as the light failed, especially not when you considered the time of the century. Harry was doing his best, however, and didn’t think he deserved the glare he could _feel_ Sarah giving him even before he twisted about to look at her, sitting there gripping the side of the boat.

“It’s no good looking at me like that, old thing,” he said. “Now that we’re here, all we can do is try to help the Doctor find the thingumy before it goes off. And I suppose it’s a chance to be part of history, eh?”

Sarah’s glare intensified. “I know that,” she said through clenched teeth, “but, honestly, Harry, sometimes he just won’t listen – and you’re no better! Being part of history? We could be wrecking it!”

“Well, to be fair, if the Doctor’s whatsit goes off, history’ll be finished. So he says, and I expect he’s right.”

She heaved a sigh and pulled a face at him, but he could see that her temper was fading. He didn’t mind anyway; he knew it wasn’t really him or the Doctor she was annoyed with, more the whole concatenation of time and circumstance that had landed them here. By now, Harry was also fairly sure that she wasn’t as good a sailor as she claimed, and none of them had had much sleep since the day before yesterday, what with chasing down that crashed alien, and the authorities chasing _them_. Besides, they had been meant to be answering the Brigadier’s distress call, so both had hoped for home and a bit of normality in between whatever crisis UNIT were facing, not a dangerous night voyage. It was enough to put anyone’s temper on edge.

“True,” she said, and opened her mouth to say something else, but whatever it was, she never got the chance.

“Aha!”

They both started, turning to look at the Doctor, who was standing at the prow brandishing what looked like some kind of radio-control device (but which he assured them was a much more sophisticated sonic detector, like radar but infinitely superior, even if he was in the middle of trying to jam a loose button back into its place). He had a fishing rod in his other hand. His sudden movement also caused the boat to bob about in a way that made Sarah look grim and Harry give an, “I say,” in protest.

“I have it!” the Doctor said, apparently oblivious to mere matters of staying afloat. “Nor-nor-east, if you can, Harry!”

Sarah closed her eyes. “That’s the wrong direction.”

“Not if we want to find the Hfnagen drone,” said the Doctor. “And if we don’t find it and disarm it then there isn’t going to be anyone left alive on this planet by the end of the week. You can’t argue with that, can you?”

Sarah shook her head. “Not when you put it like that, but I still think –”

“Come on, Harry,” said the Doctor. “I thought you were a sailor! What’s the Navy coming to these days? Nelson would have had something to say about it.”

Harry wasn’t sure what business Admiral Nelson would have had saying anything about the MO trying to sail a speedboat about in increasingly dim light with the risk of mines and enemy aircraft flying about overhead. He was pretty sure it wasn’t the sort of thing they’d had to contend with in the previous century. He concentrated instead on trying to get them to where the Doctor wanted before he started leaping about again and capsized them all. 

“Good, that’s it,” said the Doctor, suddenly behind him, moving much more carefully. He patted Harry’s shoulder. “Careful now. When we get close I’ll give you a shout and you turn the engines off. The drone has a built in defence mechanism that we don’t want to set off. It won’t activate the viral bomb, but it could finish us off before we get to it.”

“Right-ho, Doctor.”

“And, Sarah,” added the Doctor, “shout if you spot an enemy plane heading this way. Or anything else, come to that.”

She exchanged a glance with Harry. “Oh, don’t worry, I will – they’ll hear me in Calais!”

 

They pressed on as evening turned to night, following the Doctor’s directions. The sonic device, he said, would also pick up general shipping hazards, but he’d programmed it to give a distinctive flashing pattern when they neared the Hfnagen drone.

Sarah sat next to Harry, taking a turn at the wheel when he needed a break, until suddenly the Doctor moved again, waving the detector about wildly. It was beeping, which presumably meant it had detected something. 

“Harry, Sarah – engines off! Drone ahoy!” The Doctor leaned out so far over the side that Harry thought he was either going to fall off or tip the boat over, but somehow he managed to avoid it.

“That way,” the Doctor said more softly, pointing. “D’you see it? That light.”

The yellow light had a green edge to it and must have been visible for miles, reflecting across the waves.

“Oh, no,” said Harry. A light was not really what they needed right now. “Doctor!”

“Duck!” yelled Sarah, grabbing at Harry.

“Where?” said the Doctor, still standing as the enemy air craft neared, its machine gun fire raking the water nearby. “Hey! You up there! I wouldn’t do that if I were you!”

Sarah lifted her head and tugged at the Doctor’s coat. “Doctor! _Doctor!_ ”

A few yards away, the drone flared into more brilliant life, a beam of the same off-yellow light shooting up into the sky, outlining the plane before disintegrating it.

“I told him not to do that,” said the Doctor as ashes fell around them, sounding like soft rain against the waves. “Ah, well.”

Harry cleared his throat. “Doctor, I think you’d better get on and disarm that whatsit before it causes any more trouble. The next plane, ship, or sub along might get us before it gets them!”

“True,” said the Doctor. “Good point. Now, careful – edge us nearer, but gently, Harry – I know what a clumsy oaf you are.” He leaned over the edge again as they moved and then, keeping a close eye on the distance, he requested them to stop and fished for the drone, reeling it in a few moments later, while Harry and Sarah watched warily.

“Sarah,” Harry said in her ear, “now that light’s practically on top of us. Or we’re on top of it.”

“Yes, thank you; I had noticed, Harry.”

“Let’s hope no one else does, eh?”

The Doctor, however, simply switched off the light and then pulled out a pencil torch from his coat pocket. He shone it into their faces, grinning at them. “And now to work,” he said. “Either we’ll succeed or we’ll be the first ones to succumb to the virus.”

“Oh, well,” said Sarah. “Nothing to worry about, then.”

Harry slipped his hand into hers. It was a moment for holding onto something, because the only other thing they could do was keep their eyes peeled for any other activity out there and hope the Doctor didn’t make any fatal mistakes while he tried to save the world.

“A delicate operation,” the Doctor said, cheerily. “Preferably performed in a stable, closed location. Still, I expect I’ll manage. I usually do.”

“You’d better,” said Sarah.

After a few more moments, the Doctor suddenly froze. “Whoops,” he said. 

Sarah and Harry tensed.

“No, no, it’s all right.” He paused. “At least, I’m 99.9% sure it’s all right…” Then, in another few moments, he turned and grinned at them again. “Well, that’s put paid to that rather unpleasant little thing.”

“Oh, well _done_ , Doctor!” said Harry, breathing out properly at last, and letting go of Sarah.

Sarah was more cautious. “Are you sure? How?”

“Well, you can’t go firing off things like these without having some sort of way of disarming it if you find you’ve made a mistake a few seconds later. It’s got a self-destruct mechanism, usually remote-activated, of course, but, as I said, this one was malfunctioning, which was why we couldn’t do it from the Hfnagen ship. However, it’s evaporated now – steamed away into nothing, you might say. What’s left is merely the casing. There _was_ a pass code. Tricky thing - needed a genius to crack it, but, as it happens, I am one.”

“Modest, too,” said Sarah, but she hugged him.

The Doctor threw the drone back into the water, and this time it sank beneath the waves. “Good riddance. Now, come on you two, we’d better get back to the TARDIS. The Brigadier is waiting!”

“Er, well, there is just one other matter,” said Harry. “This boat. As we tried to explain when you stole it –”

“There were hundreds of boats there – it wasn’t as if they would miss one.”

“Doctor,” said Sarah. “Do you know what day it is?”

“Of course! I always know precisely when I am.” The Doctor frowned. “Oh,” he said slowly. “Ah. It must be May the 26th, 1940. _Not_ the annual Sheerness regatta?”

“No,” Harry said. “Not a regatta.”

“Oh, well, then, in that case, turn us about, Harry! I do believe there are some soldiers somewhere over there waiting for a lift home.”

“It’s going to be dangerous,” Harry said, looking at Sarah. 

She raised her chin. “Well, if _you_ want to go back, Harry –”

Harry knew when a thing was a lost cause. “Dunkirk it is, then. I only hope we all get back to the Brigadier in one piece, or he’ll have something to say about it.”

The Doctor coughed. “You know, there is one thing. This sonic detector. Marvellous, naturally – a work of pure brilliance – and it ought to be a whizz for avoiding mines but getting it to detect France might require some reprogramming, as it were.”

“Well, lucky for you,” said Sarah, “Harry and I found a map and compass earlier. We thought they might come in handy.”

“Splendid,” said the Doctor, grinning again. “I knew I brought you along for a reason. And, you know, I’m sure if I made a few tweaks to that engine, we shouldn’t even be late!”

Harry and Sarah exchanged another glance.

“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, eh, Doctor?” said Harry.


End file.
